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The Balance Wheel, IQ Man Style

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7 years ago

Nicholas Bellamy is a guest blogger for IQ Man!

For a period of time I liked to prioritize with a list. The top being the most important and so on. Things like family, faith, friends, school, and work generally topped the list. The problem I ran into was that I would put too much emphasis on the current #1 priority of that season. Most of the others would take a back seat until I felt satisfied with #1. Then one day a coach hit me with this: instead of looking at my priorities as a list, make them a wheel. Each cog of the wheel is equally important as the others. If one cog of the wheel is out of balance then the wheel will not roll smoothly.

The practical application looks like this: At 9:30 am while sitting at my desk work (generally speaking) is most important. That does not mean that my family and friends are less than 100% important, but in that moment of the day I am working. At 6:00 pm when I am in the gym or running my physical health is the most important, so I should have allotted the right amount of time (or balance) to my schedule in order to include this activity. At 7:00 pm while having dinner, most priorities can take a pause and my family/friends can have my undivided attention.

Here is what we are trying to achieve: we do not want any one aspect of our life to overrun the rest. If you have $1,000,000 cash in the bank but no friends and your family does not like you much than you do not have balance and will most likely not be happy. Look at your wheel and the way you organize your time -> Do you need better balance to roll smoothly?